


this is our ungodly hour

by skyclectic



Series: wild as we are [1]
Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Biting, Blood, Blood Drinking, F/F, Past Im Nayeon/Myoui Mina/Yoo Jeongyeon, Polyamory, Vampire Hunters, Vampires, minor Park Jisoo | Jihyo/Yoo Jeongyeon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2019-10-18 19:27:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17586926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyclectic/pseuds/skyclectic
Summary: Sana believes that life is a result of all the choices you make. It just never crossed her mind that her choices will lead her here - walking somewhere between shadows and the dark, with a heart that beats for a monster she was trained to kill.---Or the one where Sana the vampire hunter, falls in love with Nayeon, the 300-year-old vampire.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't understand how my brain equated taking a break from _the anatomy of you and me_ = writing another potentially long _multi-shot series_. but here we are. this exploded out of me in just a few hours and i'm strangely happy with it despite not quite having a grasp on the whole plot yet. gahhh. Writing is An Experience //cries into the abyss.

 

The house is quiet, an eerie sense of stillness heavy in the air, when Nayeon steps out of her bedroom, already dressed.

She walks down the hallway briskly, with muted purposeful footsteps. As she passes Tzuyu's room, Nayeon is half expecting the youngest to throw the door open and flash her a sleep-drunk dimpled smile. But there is only silence, no sign of life beyond the panelled door.

It's not exactly surprising given how early it is. Even Nayeon herself, despite how old she is, feels slightly off-kilter, being awake before darkness has truly set. She can feel it in her bones; how the last dying embers of sunlight linger in the sky above their underground home.

As much as she wishes to head back to bed and sleep in like she normally does, there are more important things for her to do. Things that she now carry like silver crosses on her shoulders; the burden of responsibility that has somehow fallen upon her after everything that happened.

If she doesn't keep it together and hold up all their broken pieces, no one else will. Sleep is only a small sacrifice to pay.

The thoughts settle like stones in her gut, a feeling that only worsens when her gaze falls on the bolted door at the other end of the hallway.

 

It is still too early by the time Nayeon reaches the roof of the city's tallest skyscraper. Nayeon would have preferred a more remote location, somewhere deep in the forest bordering their home, maybe. But Mina has always preferred to err on the side of caution, always painfully aware of the need to make absolutely sure they will not be overheard. And here, with the city lights glimmering jewels far beneath their feet, there is every guarantee of discretion.

Nayeon yawns as she watches the darkness saturate the sky in ever-constant increments, transforming hues of tinted blue into murky grey.

"You have always been terrible at waking up early," a familiar voice sounds from somewhere behind her.

As with everything Mina does, it's quiet - barely an exhale of air that neither of them have needed for a long, long time. Still, Nayeon hears her of course. It's hard not to when her senses are sharper than any human, when they cut through the world in razor sharp strokes.

Nayeon merely hums, doesn't bother to turn around and doesn't react at all when Mina appears beside her faster than the blink of an eye.

It's only when she feels lips pressing ever so softly against the skin at the corner of her mouth, does Nayeon feel the tension melt out of her. She turns to face one of her oldest, dearest companions with lips quirked into a small smile. Mina offers a smile of her own, genuine, even if it never quite reaches her eyes.

"You look well," Mina murmurs, tucking a stray strand of hair behind Nayeon's ear.

"I manage," Nayeon concedes then sweeps her eyes over Mina pointedly, taking in Mina's perfectly put-together outfit. "And you look elegant as always, Gracie."

Mina's eyes turn soft at the nickname Nayeon had taken to calling her over the last seventy years or so. They have too much history between them; memories folded into decades and decades that number only a fraction of the eternity they have on this earth.

 

("Mina, you remind me of her so much," Nayeon laughingly says from where she's curled up in Jeongyeon's lap, gesturing to the flickering image of Grace Kelly on the television in front of them. "Always perfectly elegant and full of grace."

Jeongyeon chuckles her agreement into the crook of Nayeon's neck, her fangs prickling ever so slightly on Nayeon's skin and making her shiver.

Mina only smiles, eyes glimmering with something in between fondness and unrestrained desire. Because of course she noticed Nayeon's reaction. And from the way Jeongyeon's arm tightens around Nayeon's waist, Jeongyeon has noticed too.

It's the first time in over a decade the three of them are together again like this, after Mina was called to serve in the Council. Every other meeting before this was an endless string of stuffy ballrooms and ceremonies, full of too many observing eyes and listening ears.

Nayeon has missed this so, so much. How eternity seems less lonely, less daunting, when she has both of them with her. How it burns in the exact shape of Jeongyeon's lips branding the skin at the back of her neck, how it shines in the edges of Mina's smile just before she leans down and sinks her fangs into the dip of Nayeon's clavicle.)

 

Nayeon swallows at the memory, and steels herself, sweeping it back into the corner of her mind she forces herself not to think about. It wouldn't do to live in the past, no matter how beautiful it was. Not when everything else is threatening to splinter apart from underneath their feet.

Mina's eyes grow pained, as though she too is forced to pull herself out of a similar memory.

"How is she?" Mina whispers, and Nayeon can see how much it hurts Mina to ask. She feels the same hurt seeping through her and cannot help herself from looking away, knowing it will be answer enough for Mina.

A painful silence lingers between them before Nayeon breaks it with a resigned sigh. "Mina, you know you can always come and visit - "

"You know I can't, Nayeon," Mina cuts in, voice perfectly steady and Nayeon has known her long enough to know when Mina's walls are up again. "If the Council finds out, we will all pay a terrible price."

"We are already paying a terrible price," Nayeon points out before she can remember to swallow the words down. She bites down on her bottom lip and tastes blood.

Mina's eyes soften just slightly before they harden again.

"I've finally managed to convince Jang Hyuk to help me," she says matter-of-factly, reaching up and brushing her thumb over Nayeon's bloodied lip even though the wound had healed almost instantly. "He'll help me sneak into the Secret Archives. There has to be something in there we can use to help us."

Nayeon frowns. For the better part of a year, Mina has been using her position at the Council and all the connections that come with it, to search for an answer out of their situation. She's never explicitly divulged any details but Nayeon has been a vampire long enough to know how her kind operates, how the Council members operate. Everything comes with a price.

"Jang Hyuk is not the kind of vampire that will willingly help anyone," Nayeon says slowly, every word measured.

"If it means Jeongyeon will no longer be in pain, then it's a small price to pay," Mina counters simply, an intense note of finality in her voice.

Nayeon holds Mina's gaze just as fiercely. "Just promise me, you'll be safe, Gracie."

Mina doesn't reply. Just tugs on Nayeon's hand so they end up pressed against each other's edges, before wrapping her arms around Nayeon.

"You should go," Mina lets her go after a moment and takes a step back. "It's getting darker. Jihyo will wake soon and you need to hurry back."

"I will. Tzuyu cannot handle her alone, and Jeongyeon is -"

Nayeon breaks off because there's no real need to continue the sentence anyway. It will only hurt both of them all over again.

"I'll see you soon, Nayeonnie," Mina presses a chaste kiss to Nayeon's lips for a brief second and then she's gone.

Nayeon stays on the roof for just a moment longer, feeling the cool night breeze on her face, before she turns and disappears into the night.

 

/

 

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Sana?" Momo mutters in an undertone, soft enough for only Sana to hear.

"It's been 3 years, Momo. We can't keep coddling her forever," Sana whispers back firmly, keeping her eyes locked on Chaeyoung, at the other side of the room.

Momo huffs, face twisting unhappily but she falls silent without another word. They watch as Chaeyoung uncaps the eyeliner, movements rounded with knife-like purpose. She's all sharp edges now, no longer the soft, kind girl Sana remembers. There's a fire in Chaeyoung that seems to only grow wilder and wilder with each passing day. And no matter what she tells Momo, there's a part of Sana that's so afraid Chaeyoung will burn into a raging forest fire and neither of them will have enough rain to save her from the flames.

The charm resting against Sana's sternum gives out a low hum, as though trying to calm her nerves. Sana breathes slowly and takes comfort in it, feeling the soothing stillness sink into her bones.

"Let's go," Chaeyoung's tense voice snaps Sana back to reality.

Momo sighs but complies, already turning around and grabbing her stake from the mantelpiece without another word.

Sana doesn't move, keeping her eye on Chaeyoung for another beat. She watches as Chaeyoung runs tender fingers over the dusty bow on the mantelpiece, over the silver-tipped arrows in the quiver. She watches the way Chaeyoung's eyes turn into shuttered windows for a fraction of a second, and then burn with that wild raging fire.

Sana grabs her own silver dagger and tucks it into the sheath strapped to her ankle.

"Let's go," she echoes, and holds out her hand for Chaeyoung to take.

 

/

 

Tzuyu has always been an early riser. Even though her ribs no longer shelter a beating heart, she still wakes up early every night. A part of her takes comfort in this, in how some things never change even though she has, in so many uncountable ways.

It makes it all a little easier to live this way, with eternity in her palms and the taste of blood lingering in her mouth.

She sighs and rereads the paragraph before her, yet again. She has always had a smart sensible head on her shoulders but apparently, that's not enough to understand what exactly this book is trying to say. Tzuyu will never understand why the old scholars write in such convoluted language that is almost impossible to decipher.

A year ago, she would have asked Jeongyeon to help her, would have curled up on the couch with her to read, but well, that's no longer a viable option. And Nayeon is too busy keeping everything together, holding up all their broken pieces with a sheer strength of will that's slowly chipping her away.

So, Tzuyu keeps reading, forcing her brain to focus on the words, on doing her own part to help Jeongyeon and ease a little of Nayeon's burdens. Maybe if she's lucky, she'll come across something that will save Jihyo and put an end to all their misery.

On her fifth reread, she feels the house wards ripple, and knows instinctively that it's Nayeon, back from her meeting with Mina.

She waits, counting down the seconds in her own head, for Nayeon to materialise in the doorway of the kitchen, where she's currently sitting.

"Hello, little dove," Nayeon greets, coming around to lay a cool palm on the top of Tzuyu's head.

Tzuyu keeps her eyes on the words before her, scrunching her nose up at the nickname. Nayeon has a thing for giving everyone she loves nicknames and Tzuyu pretends to hate it even though she knows Nayeon can see right through her.

There's a low chuckle and then fingers tugging on her arm. Tzuyu shifts wordlessly and allows Nayeon to settle in her lap. She noses Nayeon's hair for the briefest of seconds, breathing in Nayeon's scent and catching the barest hint of Mina too.

"Are they awake yet?" Nayeon asks and there's an undercurrent of weariness in her voice that makes Tzuyu ache.

"No," she replies softly, reaching around Nayeon for the mug of blood on the table and taking a long sip.

Nayeon's fingers come up to wrap around her wrist, tugging again until Tzuyu presses the mug to her lips. Nayeon takes a sip then makes a little displeased noise at the back of her throat.

"If you know you hate the taste of warmed up blood, why do you insist on still drinking mine?" Tzuyu questions mildly, ignoring the way Nayeon huffs in mock offence.

"Blood is still blood," Nayeon counters, almost defiantly.

Tzuyu rolls her eyes because Nayeon is and always will be stubborn. They both know how she prefers drinking straight from a blood bag if it's not blood directly from a human's veins. Nayeon has repeatedly over the years, turned her nose up at the way Tzuyu prefers drinking hers - a habit she picked up from Jeongyeon who always pours the blood into a mug and warms it up in the microwave before drinking.

As if on cue, loud inhuman screams echo throughout the house, reverberating off the walls. Underneath all the grating screams, there's the sound of Jeongyeon's soothing murmurs that grow increasingly desperate with every word before tapering off into heart-wrenching sobs.

Tzuyu stills and feels Nayeon tense too. It's been almost a year of this and yet, it never gets any easier.

"I'll go hunt," Nayeon tells her, voice devoid of any emotion whatsoever.

"Okay," Tzuyu murmurs, as Nayeon unfolds herself from Tzuyu's lap. Nayeon's face is carefully blank, a mask Tzuyu knows she puts on like armour that will somehow protect her from their world crumbling.

"I'll get a blood bag," Tzuyu adds quietly, taking in the way Nayeon methodically buttons up her coat again with steady fingers.

Nayeon smiles at her words but it's a brittle little thing that never reaches her eyes.

"Thank you, dove. I won't be long."

Tzuyu waits until she hears the front door close again before she moves to the fridge and pulls out a blood bag. She tears open a corner with her fang - perks of being a vampire, she muses humourlessly - and reaches for an empty mug from the cabinet above the sink.

It has little penguins on it. Tzuyu thinks it might have belonged to Mina once, a long, long time ago. She pours the blood into the mug and pops it into the microwave.

As she waits for the blood to warm up, Tzuyu stands in front of the sink with her head bowed. She closes her eyes and tries her best to drown out the screaming and the sound of Jeongyeon breaking apart all over again.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm going to be honest here and say that i'm not sure how i'll juggle updating this fic, _the anatomy of you and me_ , and a demanding day job. 
> 
> my priority is still _the anatomy of you and me_ , so updates may be slower and more erratic for this one. 
> 
> if you're still okay with all of that, thank you for reading and welcome to another long ride <3


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter took far too long, but here it finally is. thank you for waiting, and enjoy :)

 

The pounding bass of the music from the nightclub is loud, even though they're standing across the street. 

"This is a terrible idea," Momo mutters under her breath, barely moving her lips or shifting from the languid pose she's affecting against the lamp post. 

Sana glances at her best friend out of the corner of her eye, taking in the way light falls over Momo's face, highlighting her cheekbones a lovely kind of gold. It's in stark contrast to the way Momo's eyes are shards of steel with edges that seem to cut straight to the bone.

A sigh escapes Sana's lips before she can stop it. "Chaengie will be fine."

The words come out a little forced, catching on weeds that have rooted themselves at the base of Sana's throat with every minute that passes. It’s been almost an hour and there’s still no sight of Chaeyoung stumbling out of the nightclub's door.

Momo's eyes harden even further, lethal in their sharpness. "If she doesn't come out in two minutes, I'm going in."

Sana doesn’t object. It’s something that has been flitting through her own mind for the past half an hour, even if she doesn’t quite know how to voice it out to Momo. Not without admitting that maybe she was wrong about letting Chaeyoung play the bait today.

Her charm hums against her skin. A low note that’s meant to reassure and settle the tangle of emotions currently trying to hammer their way out of her chest. Sana takes in a deep calming breath but in the next second, stops breathing entirely when a familiar figure stumbles out of the club doors.

Beside her, Momo has tensed up too. Neither of them move though, just keeping an eye on Chaeyoung, swaying unsteadily on her feet and doing a fine job of appearing to be very very drunk. Drunk and an easy target for any passing vampire.

Sana marvels at the way Chaeyoung trips along the sidewalk, joints loose; a beautiful mess with her platinum blonde hair and skintight crop top that shows off her lithe figure. Chaeyoung pauses, as if lost in drunken thought, before turning into a dark alleyway near the end of the street with wobbly steps. There's a split second before Chaeyoung disappears from view, swallowed up whole by the impenetrable darkness.

Nothing happens. 

And then everything happens all at once.

Sana's charm blazes; comes alive in a scorching burst of energy. From the way Momo's entire frame turns sharper than a dagger's blade, Sana knows Momo's own charm must have just set off too. 

With only the briefest of glances at each other, both of them set off running for the mouth of the alleyway Chaeyoung disappeared into. Sana’s charm is impossibly hot now, a golden disc that burns against her skin; a warning that seems to set Sana’s entire body aflame. 

There is also a discernible shift in the air around them; a disturbance heavy with the weight of magical recoil that follows the death of a vampire. It grows stronger the closer they get to the alleyway - a deadweight that settles unforgivingly over Sana's shoulders. Her stomach churns, and the heat from her charm is unbearable now, searing into her in a way that tells Sana something has gone terribly, terribly wrong. 

Momo is faster; has always managed to outrun Sana even when they were still kids racing each other at the playground. She disappears into the darkness too. 

Sana steps into the alley and hears a muffled noise that sounds like someone repeatedly slapping lightly at a slab of steak. It’s drowned out at times from the loud exclamations of Chaeyoung’s name in Momo’s voice. Still, Sana recognises it for what it is; Chaeyoung driving her stake over and over again into the body of the vampire Sana knows is already dead. The recoil weighs even more heavily on her with every step Sana takes and she pushes down the urge to hurl or to run far away.

It’s impossibly dark but the small sunburst tattoo on her nape helps her to see, guides her to the end of the alley. Her stomach plummets dangerously, ice gripping her heart. Chaeyoung’s entire front is _covered_ in blood, her knees pressing into the vampire’s mangled torso; a mess of flesh and bone, no match for Chaeyoung’s wildfire. Momo is trying desperately to pull Chaeyoung away, to get her to stop. But Chaeyoung doesn’t hear her, eyes glazed over like she’s been glamoured or overtaken completely by a vision invisible to everyone but her. 

Sana steels herself then grabs Chaeyoung’s arm, twisting it hard so that the bloodied stake clatters to the ground. Together, Sana and Momo forcefully drag a struggling Chaeyoung away and somehow back her up against the brick wall behind them.

“Let me go,” Chaeyoung snarls and for a moment, Sana is afraid; sees nothing but a monster before her instead of the Chaeyoung she’s known for years. 

The next moment, Momo manages to cup the back of Chaeyoung’s neck. Sana watches as the fire in Chaeyoung’s eyes dim with every incantation Momo’s whispering under her breath, right into Chaeyoung’s ear. Before long, Chaeyoung’s harsh breathing slows and her eyelids start to droop. Sana loosens her grip on Chaeyoung’s arm and feels something beneath her ribs cave when unfiltered peace blossoms underneath all the blood staining Chaeyoung’s face. She reaches up and gently uses her sleeve to wipe away as much of it as she can.

“She’s out,” Momo mutters around a tattered sigh. “I’ll take her back. You need to get this mess cleaned up.”

Momo says everything matter-of-factly but Sana still hears the unspoken accusation, the words of blame Sana knows Momo’s keeping under lock and key. The guilt burns; tongues of flame that lick at Sana’s insides, turning everything inside her to ash. Momo was right. It’s too soon, too cruel to make Chaeyoung play the bait today.

“Text me when you’re home,” Sana murmurs, avoiding Momo’s gaze, as she helps to lift a slumbering Chaeyoung up onto Momo’s back. 

There is only a vague noise of acknowledgement before Momo makes her way out of the alley, leaving Sana alone in the darkness. Sana eyes the rotting corpse in front of her wearily; vampire corpses disintegrate fast, once the magic keeping them ‘alive’ is gone and they truly die. This one was turned just on the cusp of adulthood, cheeks still rounded by youth.

She pulls out her phone and dials a number by heart, counts the number of rings it takes to hear the familiar hello. 

“Hey, I need your help. Can you meet me at that alley near Trix? The nightclub just past Sakai’s Sushi Bar, yeah.” 

Sana hangs up after a minute, and settles back against the wall to wait. She closes her eyes and thinks about Chaeyoung, about silver-tipped arrows in a dusty quiver, and about a dimpled smile now lost in the pages of a past that still seems to haunt them.

  

/

 

Nayeon can no longer remember the last time she fed on a human until their blood ran dry. For most of her three hundred years living after death, Nayeon has survived on blood bags and the occasional trip to a bloodhouse.

It’s the reason why her feet take her all the way to the east end of the metropolis, where most of the city’s vices have sunk their roots. It’s where she has the highest chance of catching an unsuspecting human hooked on some kind of drug or under the influence of too much alcohol. Nayeon can never bring herself to harm a human who was not already digging their own grave, yearning for some kind of escape from this life. It makes the swift, abrupt ending of their fate a merciful one, or as close to merciful as Nayeon can give. 

Especially now, when the end they will meet after Nayeon brings them home is an unforgivingly cruel one. 

Her footsteps make no noise as she flits from rooftop to rooftop until her senses pick out the unmistakable sound of a solitary heartbeat, isolated and a distance away from other beating hearts.

In the blink of an eye, Nayeon smoothly lands in the middle of a dark alley,  right in front of her target; a young boy barely out of his teens. His eyes are glassy and unfocused, as he slumps against the brick wall behind him. Nayeon can smell the heroin thick in his veins, clouding the natural sweet tang of his blood.

He doesn’t notice Nayeon, of course, too lost in his drug-induced haze. It’s only when Nayeon forcefully tilts his chin up does he seem to come to himself long enough to let out a sharp, horrified yelp. 

It’s already too late. Nayeon latches on to his terrified gaze, and draws his mind in. She maintains eye contact, holding on to his consciousness until the terror dissolves completely from his face.

“I’m sorry,” Nayeon murmurs gently, sending his mind a gentle nudge, the softest of suggestions. “Is it okay to bite you?”

The boy’s face remains slack, but there’s the tiniest of nods and Nayeon feels the crackle of magic underneath her fingers, feels the protection that hovers above his skin fade into nothingness. 

Almost immediately after his unspoken permission, Nayeon feels the way his consciousness falls more towards the gravity of her own. She pulls on the fraying threads, yanks them hard enough for flickers of memory to seep into her mind instead.

Summer sun warming his skin. Laughter as he tumbles into a pile of golden leaves. Endless blue sky. The smell of homemade chicken soup. His mother smiling as they build sandcastles. Sand dusting his small hands. Fresh dirt in a mound beside a headstone. His fingers pressing hard against the engraved name. His fingers again, trembling the first time he shot a joint. Floating on clouds and peace, a temporary escape. Peace and skies that are blue, an endless, endless blue. 

Nayeon takes it all, every memory, every bone that makes up the skeleton of his life. Then, when he has nothing more to give, she jerks the connection between them until it snaps.

She takes a step back, collecting herself for just a second. The boy’s eyes are empty now, broken windows that look into a hollow, soulless house. 

Shattering him like this is mercy too. It's the only way to gift him a death removed of all the suffering, of all the unbearable pain when Jihyo’s wildfire consumes him. 

 

/

 

Jeongyeon's sobs have long since tapered off, even though her entire frame is still trembling from the weight of grief too heavy to bear. She’s almost as tall as Tzuyu is, but right now, half-broken and hollowed out, Jeongyeon is impossibly small in Tzuyu’s arms.

The screaming is even louder here, an incessant cacophony of noise that deafens with how savage, how _inhuman_  it is. It takes everything in Tzuyu’s power to focus every bit of her attention on Jeongyeon, to gently urge her to sip at the warmed-up blood in the penguin mug. 

A part of Tzuyu knows how counterproductive it is; with every shaky sip Jeongyeon manages to swallow down, more bloody tears leak out of the corner of her eyes. But Tzuyu doesn’t let herself dwell on it because the alternative is to lose Jeongyeon too and - 

The house wards ripple, and Tzuyu tenses up, an involuntary reaction because this next part is _hard_ , no matter how many times they've been through it. She feels Jeongyeon’s breath hitch, a broken exhale that snaps underfoot like a fragile twig. The penguin mug slips from her hands, shattering on the floor in bloodied shards; a spillover of eternal damnation in crimson red. It's not the first mug they've lost this way, and probably won't be the last, Tzuyu knows.

On the other side of the room, Jihyo has fallen deadly silent, face still twisted into an ugly unrecognisable snarl, just on the edge of yet another scream. She’s no longer struggling to break free from the silver shackles binding her wrists and ankles, holding her in place. Instead, Jihyo has her head cocked towards the heavy bolted door, fangs out, flecks of spit on her chin and unrelenting hunger clouding her brown eyes an angry red.

Tzuyu can hear it too, just the faintest hint of a heartbeat, growing steadily louder with every passing second. Jihyo starts snarling, pulling at her restraints again when the heartbeat is now close enough to be just beyond the bolted door. There’s a split second where the heartbeat is deafening, a pounding drum that echoes too loudly in the entire room. Every one of them becomes powerless against it; blood-thirsty creatures swayed by the hypnotic pull of its life, of its sweet siren call of paradise.

Then, the door swings open and Nayeon flits in, a passing shadow. She's suddenly there in the middle of the room; a 300-year-old mirage of otherworldly beauty. The source of the heartbeat is the young boy with glazed eyes standing beside her. 

Tzuyu can sense the sheen of glamour thick in his veins. She takes a second to take in his pale face, still soft around the edges from youth. But then Jihyo screams, thrashing violently in her urgent need to get to the beating heart before her. 

Nayeon's face remains carefully blank. Only her eyes betray the faintest of emotions when they flicker over Jihyo's twisted face; her increasingly violent thrashing, fuelled by maddening hunger. 

She takes a careful step away from the boy and then catches Tzuyu's eye. Tzuyu gives a tiny nod in return, and tries to brace herself because this next part is _hard_ , no matter how many times they've been through it. 

Jeongyeon is crying again, her entire frame wrecked with heart-wrenching sobs. Tzuyu's heart breaks along with every painful sob. She holds Jeongyeon tighter, squeezing once before letting go. Jeongyeon doubles over immediately, caving underneath all this insurmountable pain. Tzuyu takes a moment, just one, to lean down and press a kiss to the top of her head. She knows it offers the least comfort but it's the only thing she has in her to give. 

Slowly, Tzuyu makes her way over to the other side of the room. Jihyo doesn't notice her, focus too razor-sharp on the only human in the room. It's Nayeon's gaze that burns hot on the back of Tzuyu's neck. It's Nayeon who carefully watches, Nayeon who breaks herself trying to protect them all. It's Nayeon who carries the rest of them on her shoulders through this unending circle of hell. 

Tzuyu's fingers still tremble every time she has to do this and she fumbles with the clasps on Jihyo's shackles. There's wood layered over the silver but Tzuyu's fingers are always clumsy. It burns every time a silvered edge brushes against her fingers, but Tzuyu absorbs the pain; is aware that this is nothing. It’s only a mere fraction of Nayeon's pain, and only a mere drop in the ocean of agony Jeongyeon is drowning in. 

The clasps finally click open, a final note as ominous as the inevitable curtain call of a human life drawing to an end. There's a brief struggle; an insistent force pushing against the shackles in Tzuyu's hands and then an angry burn right over the middle of Tzuyu's palm. 

Tzuyu can't help the immediate hiss that leaves her lips, or the way her eyes have squeezed themselves shut at the sting. Still, even with her eyes closed, she can hear the harsh gulps as Jihyo swallows mouthfuls of the boy's blood greedily. The metallic stench is thick in the air, and Tzuyu cannot help the way her fangs have run out.

It's still the most stomach-twisting of sights when Tzuyu finally opens her eyes again. Jihyo is bent possessively over the boy whose breathing is now laboured. Her hands are digging into his shoulders, drawing crimson trails down his arms from where Jihyo’s claws pierce his flesh. There are multiple bite marks on his neck, fresh and still oozing blood yet Jihyo doesn’t let up, biting over every unblemished patch of skin in her hunger to drain him dry. She’s growling low in her throat, like an animal. 

The boy’s heart is barely beating now and his face is a shade of lifeless grey. Jihyo growls louder, sinks her fangs into the dip of his clavicle in desperation. It’s not enough. No matter how many humans Nayeon brings home, it is never enough. 

They are all monsters, creatures of the night that walk in every human’s worst nightmares. But Jihyo, in her unyielding hunger, is somehow more savage than any of them in the room. In the corner, Jeongyeon is still sobbing. 

Sometimes, Tzuyu thinks it would be kinder to put a stake through Jihyo’s heart but it’s a cruel thing to ask of Jeongyeon. Jeongyeon who feels every bit of Jihyo’s pain, every bit of Jihyo’s madness and bloodlust, yet cannot find it in her to let go or give Jihyo up.

And so here they are, living through the same nightmare every day. A year of this, and centuries more lying in wait. 

Tzuyu hears it, the last rattling gasp of air that leaves the boy’s lungs and the stillness that follows afterwards. Jihyo finally lifts her face, blood still dripping from her fangs. Her crazed eyes land on Tzuyu and then there’s a blur of movement. 

Tzuyu gets to her feet almost immediately, picking herself up from where Nayeon had pushed her away from Jihyo’s attack. Nayeon has Jihyo backed against the wall now, but she lets it happen, lets Jihyo’s fangs tear into her neck, lets Jihyo claw at her arms until there’s blood. Nayeon’s eyes are bright with pain as Jihyo bites down again and again. But she bears it, makes no sound until Tzuyu manages to shackle one of Jihyo’s ankles.

Jihyo shrieks in agony from the silver burning her skin. Nayeon seizes her chance; in Jihyo’s momentary distraction, she quickly brings her hands up to grasp Jihyo’s jaw and jerks sharply. There is that distinct noise that has embedded itself into Tzuyu’s mind from the first time Nayeon had done it a year ago. A brief discordant snap, like a tiny branch forcefully broken off a young tree. 

Jihyo falls limply to the floor, utterly still, with her neck at an unnatural angle. 

Quickly, Tzuyu puts the other shackles back over the rest of Jihyo’s limbs. She knows they have minutes at best, before Jihyo heals. The body in the room needs to be disposed off before that happens. Sometimes, after she heals, Jihyo will wake up screaming for blood. But if they’re lucky, Jihyo won’t wake until the sun sets again tomorrow.

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Nayeon walk over to the corner, just a little unsteady on her feet. She bends down and cradles a still sobbing Jeongyeon in her arms, murmuring words too soft for Tzuyu to hear, even with her vampire senses. 

Tenderly, Nayeon wipes away the trails of bloody tears on Jeongyeon’s face, thumb brushing over Jeongyeon’s cheekbone soothingly. Then, with ease, she lifts Jeongyeon up into her arms, and carries her out of the room. 

Tzuyu lets out a bone-weary sigh. Then takes in a deep breath because old habits die hard and because it helps her to calm down. She gives herself a few seconds, before she heads over to the dead human in the middle of the room. She uses her finger to close his unseeing eyes, mutters a little prayer, then heaves the body over her shoulder. The heavy bolts on the door click into place when Tzuyu leaves the room. 

The house is silent now, a brief reprieve before the monster wakes again.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've never actually watched any vampire-related shows so a lot of this fic is fragments of my imagination, as well as heavily inspired by these two fic series from the VIXX fandom; [Immortals (Vamp AU)](https://archiveofourown.org/series/425302) and [Incarnadine (Vamp AU redux)](https://archiveofourown.org/series/493411). please go check them out if you're into vampire fics and rich world-building, i highly recommend it :)
> 
> \---
> 
> @skyclectic on twitter and https://curiouscat.me/skyclectic on cc 
> 
> so, come drop by to say hi or share your thoughts or ask me anything, really. <3


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